One

Monday, September 30, 2013

These
monthly interviews have a mixture of authors with very different styles of
writing and genres from cosy mysteries to police procedural, crime farce and
suspense. Today’s victim at Jamie Tremain is Rob Brunet, a NOIR writer of
published short stories. Check his blog www.robbrunet.com/‎or
find him on Twitter @RRBrunet

Thanks
Rob for agreeing to answer some questions about your writing life and giving us
a perspective of your recent trip to Bouchercon, www.bouchercon.info/‎
in Albany NY. This is the premiere world conference for all readers and writers
of crime fiction. It’s taking place in Long Beach CA in 2014. I’d better start
saving now.

Pam:

What attracts you to
the Noir style of writing? You seem like a kind, mild mannered family man to
me. Where do all those dark thoughts come from?

Rob:

I’ve always had a pretty dark sense of humour, and it spills over into my writing, even when the subject is “serious”. Compared to a lot of noir authors, my work is pretty tame, though. Especially my longer work.

I’m a pretty big believer in Yin and Yang. If
there’s a dark side to something, there pretty much has to be a light side,
too.

A habit I developed as a kid was to imagine the
worst possible outcome in a given situation. I’d inhabit it and convince myself
that was what was going to happen. I figured if I thought it through and worked
out all the impossibly bad details, whatever actually happened wouldn’t be as harsh as whatever I’d dreamt up.
It usually worked. (Still does, sometimes.)

Pam:

Do we all have a dark
side?

Rob:

Ha! You tell me, Pam.

Seriously, though, I imagine most people have surprised themselves at one
time or another by things they have done that are “bad”, whatever that means.
And if you pull back from that to just the things we’ve all dreamt of doing... well, there’s all
kinds of lines that people will cross in their mind, I think.

Pam:

Has noir film
influenced your work and do you have a favourite?

Rob:

Whenever I’m asked for a favourite, I’m always
afraid I’ll remember a more favourite
one immediately after. But there are a few movies that really evoke the feeling
I am going for in my writing. Fargo
is probably foremost among them. The Coen brothers turned the genre on its
head, following Jerry Lundegaard’s desperate descent into a personal hell
pretty much of his own making.

Guy Ritchie’s films are also regular fare for me. I
watch Snatch a few times a year.

Sexy
Beast is another favorite, but then I could watch Ben
Kingsley smoke cigarettes all night.

(Complete aside: Kingsley just finished filming a
Sarah Kernochan movie opposite Patricia Clarkson, called Learning to Drive. It won’t come out until October 2014, but I’m
sure it’ll be a gem. Kernochan wrote the screenplay for 9 ½ Weeks. Somehow I think Learning
to Drive will be a little tamer, and maybe even have a bit more dialogue.)

Pam:

How long have you been
writing and do you have a favourite author?

Rob:

It’s been said before, but I’ve been writing pretty
much my whole life. I’ve got poems from Grade 2 with the teacher’s red ink
asking whether we had a future Dr. Seuss in the class. (I must’ve taken her one helluva red apple.) That carried on right through school and I always expected to write, but I got distracted by digital media for a couple decades. I just couldn’t shake it. Finally, I gave in to the muse, and I’ve never been happier with how I spend my time.

I have lots of favourite authors, and they’re quite
different one from the other. Carl Hiaasen, John Irving, Margaret Atwood
(especially her early books), and Thomas Hardy are all front row. David Adams
Richards stuns me with his depiction of living rough in the Miramichi in New
Brunswick. When I first read him I couldn’t believe he was describing life in
the seventies in the same country I’d grown up in. It sounded more like JUDE
THE OBSCURE, his characters take such a beating.

Pam:

Do you have a work in progress? Another short story or have you started
a novel?

Rob:

My first novel STINKING RICH is out on submission.
It’s rural noir based in the Kawarthas. I’m working on another to follow it, as
well as a novella in an urban setting.

The next short story I have coming out will be up on
Shotgun Honey later this month. Earlier this year, they published “Rickie’s
Pig”. I love the fact they limit you to 700 words. You’ve got to get character, setting, and story so sharp it hurts. A lot of their writers go real dark real quick.

Pam:

With a background in
I.T. what is your favourite communication device?

Rob:

Smartphones. I’ve become a huge Android fan. I can
do pretty much everything anywhere anytime.

Pam:

Blogging, FB,
twitter. Is it important to be on all platforms in this day of instant
communication?

Rob:

I probably spend way too much time on line. The
reality is doing one or two platforms well is probably all you need. That said,
I have made some very good (and ultimately close) friends on Twitter. So it’s
definitely not all work.

Pam: Was this your first time attending Bouchercon? Can you give us peek at the crème de la crème of conferences? We want all the gossip, who you met, who gave you inspiration and is this a convention you would recommend to unpublished writers like Jamie Tremain?

Rob:

I’m just gonna gush if I start talking Bouchercon
here, Pam. Isn’t there a word limit for guest posts? I did blog about it: Bouchercon
Blast if your readers are curious.

I will say this, though. Everyone I met there (and I
met a lot of people) absolutely raved about the convention, talked about how
often they go, and committed to be there next year. I know I will be.

Pam:

I have one last
question Rob. Something I ask all who sit on the ‘hot seat’ here.

Have you ever
collaborated with another writer or would you consider doing so?

Rob:

I tried it a couple of times with two different friends years ago. Both were strong story ideas, and I think our writing styles meshed well enough. The problem was discipline. The two right people can motivate each other and keep the creative juices going. (It sure sounds like you and Liz do that!) The two wrong people just get together, talk about the story, and enjoy good food and drink. I fell into the latter camp.

Thanks Rob for spending the time on Jamie Tremain's blog today. Long Beach , California, here we come!

Talk soon,

Slainte,

Pam

Rob Brunet writes crime fiction. His short stories have been
published in Thuglit, Voices, and Shotgun Honey. "Roadkill" placed
second in the 2012 Bloody Words Bony Pete contest.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Mine started out normally – that is, I really didn't want to
get up. Stayed up a little later than
usual Sunday evening in order to watch the première of Louise Penny’s “Still Life”. Quite enjoyed it, although it’s
always a challenge to condense a book with multi-faceted characters into a set
time limit. And I think the Quebec
atmosphere was downplayed somewhat, perhaps for future consideration to the
American market. The setting could pass
for New England, but was filmed in Quebec, which is where the story plays
out. Loved Inspector Gamache, played by
Nathaniel Parker and hope that there will be subsequent episodes based on the
rest of the Gamache/Three Pines series.

Back to Monday morning.
Left at the usual time, and began my 40 minute or so trip to work. Hadn’t gone but five minutes when my car
started chugging and no amount of pressure on the accelerator would get it
going beyond a crawl. This as I’m
entering a fast paced express-way! With
hazards flashing I managed to creep to the next exit and limp my baby back
home. Nerve wracking with other
commuters buzzing past and I’m sure muttering a few comments at my turtle pace.

She’s now been towed to my local garage, where I received
the verdict about an hour ago. Because I’d
googled for the meaning of the dashboard
warning light I wasn’t surprised to learn I need a new throttle assembly, along
with a fistful of dollars! Make that a
trunkload of dollars. Now I
wait to see if a) the part is available today, and b) if it can be repaired
today. Yes, a day off is nice, but this
is not the way I would have chosen it.
I’ll be making up lost hours for the time over the next week or so as
well.

However I’m very grateful this didn’t happen right on the
401 Highway, or at the end of the day coming home. So there’s always a somewhat
of a bright side I suppose. And while I’m
waiting for an update on my car I can spend some time reading. Right now, I’m enjoying Barbara Fradkin’s “The Whisper of Legends”.

Last Monday’s work day ended with a gas leak in my
neighbourhood, here’s hoping by the end of today, THIS Monday will have settled
into something resembling normal!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

September is a new beginning. Kids are back in school,
summer clothes hit the pile for the basement, and the garden is fading fast. So
why is the temp at 34 degrees? I am wilting with the humidity.

But this is exceptional. Just like my exceptional husband (not sure that’s the word for him) who has decided at the end of the summer to pitch in and do some gardening. But why now when I want to cut back the bushes and empty the pots that held my tomatoes and begonias. One of the hottest days of the year and the man is red in the face with exertion. I’ve been waiting on the patio weeds to be pulled for three months, and NOW he does it.

Did I tell you we are not really gardeners? We admire others who have the fortitude to water and weed and deadhead when needed, but we’ve never had much success. I wonder if
anyone would notice if I stuck silk flowers in the ground. Sacrilege you say.
I’ll stick with my orchids indoors. Does anyone know if they have a flowering
season?

The writing is going well on our new book. Liz and I have found a better rhythm and have a better way of communicating our writing process. We'll let you in on the premise soon.

Canadian Authors rock. Each of these authors had something different to offer, and I enjoyed them all. Cozies, thrillers, suspense, police procedural, but all with the under belly of crime .

Since the New Year I’ve been interviewing Canadian Crime
Writers and had a great time doing so. If you missed any of these interviews
you can search the archives for your favourites. I noticed things were slanted
towards the female persuasion so I am about to rectify that. The following authors have agreed to an interview with Jamie Tremain.

I first met Tony at ‘Bloody Words” in Ottawa in 2009, and I’ve been a fan ever since. This Saskatchewan author
writes the Russell Quant, mystery series. You’ll have to check in on the 28th
to hear about a new series. The first is “The Saints go Marching In” featuring
Adam Saint, a Disaster Recovery Agent. You won’t be disappointed.

I first met Chris at the launch of “The Devils Dust” the
third in his Charlie McKelviey trilogy. His background in journalism shows in
the amount of research he does. Check back to find out what Chris is working on
now.

TBD-December 9th - Andrew Pyper http://www.andrewpyper.com/ A lunch at ‘Scene of the Crime” sealed the fate of my next victim.This very
talented writer will have you scared to put the light out at night.when you read his
latest. ‘The Demonologist’.

Loads of new books out this fall. Vicki Delaney, Louise Penny, Erika Chase and Ian Hamilton are just a few of the authors awaiting my attention. I'll also mention a collaboration by Kat Flannery and Alison Bruce. Their book "Hazardous Unions" was launched this week. Out on Amazon and hardcover in October.